hahahahahahaha that's hilarious if that's what he thought. I was like "uuuuh, are you sure MSG Larson is actually here?"I can't wait for level2 combatives. They should start including throws and a few strikes with that course. Love your quote btw

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Member of DaJoGen MMA school under Dave Hagen and Team Chaos fight team under Denver Mangiyatan and Chris Toquero, ran out of Zanshin Martial Arts in Salem Oregon: http://www.zanshinarts.org/Home.aspx,

Whilethis is an old thread I'll give an update. I helped instruct a level 1 course about a year ago. Now they also teach weapons retention, some knee strikes from the clinch and half Thai clinch, and ways of maintaining distance from an attacker trying to close on you. I have no complaints now. I'm going through level 2 right now and it builds on the same groundfighting drills while adding in takedowns and knife fighting. Again no complaints. It's particularly good for the Army as we need good grappling skills do to all the detainee operations, security and Police type work we do. Not everything can be solved with beating the guy to death.

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Member of DaJoGen MMA school under Dave Hagen and Team Chaos fight team under Denver Mangiyatan and Chris Toquero, ran out of Zanshin Martial Arts in Salem Oregon: http://www.zanshinarts.org/Home.aspx,

I'll bring in an update, now that I'm out. Storm, for me the changes were too little too late. My physical well-being declined fairly rapidly the last half of my career. However, I'm glad to hear they actually started incorporating material that would actually do some good. I've never been one to downplay grappling skills. My biggest complaint has always been that what they teach is impractical for military purposes. Starting on the ground does nothing for the soldier who needs to be able to move. Basic kickboxing would better suit the Army's needs, especially if they handed out something like a rubber ducky or jo staff, which had to be held on to throughout training (minus disarm specific training).

The other issue is the Army never devoted the necessary time to training in h2h. If we had spent more time in the gym as a unit, or on the grass, then the ground game could have been taught more practically. Once a week, or once a month, is simply not enough. And, what's worse, is that if I had been able to spend three days a week hitting a heavy bag when I couldn't train, I might have been better able to maintain my physical health.

Israel stands out as the example. Krav Maga is still a requirement during service. It's simple enough to teach someone in a few short weeks and be able to use effectively when the scenario arises. You don't have to be that good, just good enough. That's what a military needs to train.